We made it. Thank you.

Hello reader

Once upon a time there lived 12 brave but stupid souls who undertook one of the greatest and toughest team challenges in the world - a 100 KM gruelling walk up the hills, down the slopes and the flat but punishing Warburton to raise funds for charity...

And as they crossed the FINISH line, hand-in-hand, grinning from ear-to-ear, every nerve, sinew and bone numb with pain suppressed by ibuprofen and the adrenalin flooding the brain to raucous cheers and applause from proud families and friends, they knew they had done something special. They lived happily in pain... that weekend.

This then is the final story on this blog of 12 brave but stupid people who have perhaps achieved something we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Before we get to the story of our lives, it is really important to state this:

We dedicate this walk and the success to our fantastic support crew of wives, husbands, children, team mates and work colleagues who have now become our extended family.

Their care and support has been outstanding to say the least. Without them the beginning of this blog would have had a tragic ending. We are indebted to them and we salute them.

8:30 am Friday, 11-April-2008 (START - Jells Park)

The atmosphere was festive and charged with enthusiasm and anticipation. Hundreds of walkers decked up in their trekking gear and attire lined up to pass under the START sign at Jells Park. So were the 12 walkers from the three Satyam teams - Snails, Slugs and Sloths. Many of our family members and work colleagues and friends were there to cheer us off that single step to start the 100KM journey. Although we had trained well and knew what we would be facing, all 12 of us were nervous with excitement and anticipation. All the training and preparation, although necessary, meant nothing. We had to do the 100 KM within the next 48 hours. That was all that mattered.

A sense of pride swept into us as we got closer to the START line and we spotted our family and friends waving to us and the camera flashes going off. At that instant pride and exhilaration merged into a powerful emotion as an Oxfam staff recognizing us amongst hundreds of trailwalkers announced on the PA system "Here come the three teams from Satyam Computer Services"...

The walk from Jells Park to CP-1 (Churchill National Park) was very enjoyable. We were amongst hundreds of walkers from other teams and progress was slow due to congestion on the trail. We chit chatted with other teams about how they were feeling and how they had trained.
Congestion eased a bit as we crossed CP-1 and began the uphill ascent to CP-2 (Lysterfield Lake). Weather was picture perfect and it appeared that the rain Gods had decided to be kind to us.

We were also told that everyone in the office and also friends and family across the world - India, Singapore, Switzerland and the US were tracking our progress - live on the Oxfam site. They knew in real time when we checked in at the CP and checked out at the CP. We were amused when some of us got calls advising us that we were perhaps taking too much time at a CP and that we ought to take shorter breaks because the weather prediction for the evening was not good.

We had covered 21.5 kms when we checked in at Lysterfield Lake. Our support crew had laid out a great lunch for us and after a 40 min break we started walking again, this time towards CP-3 (Grants Picnic Grounds). There was no support crew access at this check point so we had to carry our gear with us. This section has a few difficult climbs to negotiate but we tackled them well. We refilled our water and electrolyte supplies at the CP and after a quick cup of tea got back to the trail again towards CP-4 (Olinda Reserve). The time was nearing 6:00 pm when we left Grants Picnic Grounds. We toiled our way through three difficult sections - firstly the climb through Sherbrooke forest from Grants, the dangerous and slippery trail along Sassafras Creek and the dreaded Hackett road - all in darkness. These sections started taking a toll on some of our team members with persistent back and knee problems. We arrived at (CP-4) Olinda reserve about 9:00 PM on Friday night having walked 12 hours and covering a distance of 46.5 kms. It was wonderful to see that our Support crew had reached Olinda reserve and had put up "Satyam" signs on the path leading into the Check point. The welcome for us was absolutely brilliant.

We had planned to rest the night at Olinda (in two nearby hotels) and we were all looking forward to a restful night before starting again in the morning. However, a few of us had an idea that we ought to change our plan and cover another section of 8 kms to go up to CP-5 (Silvan reservoir) before calling it a day (or night). We thought that it would reduce our workload for Saturday. The idea didn't take off as a few walkers couldn't walk any further due to injuries they had suffered on the previous section. So we stuck to our original plan and our support crew drove us into the nearby hotel. They had already brought our supplies and dinner into the hotels, which were really two country cottages one with four bedrooms and another with two. It was probably too much of a culture shock for the owner of one of them to see about 20 people including 12 walkers storm into his quaint country cottage. Although he knew perfectly well that only 8 of us would stay in his cottage for the night, he threw a tantrum and yours sincerely suffered a mild rise in blood pressure that caused a heated argument with the owner. It was good for the environment and heated up the lounge on that wintry and cold night. Poor bloke - how would he know what was happening to Australia or for that matter the rest of the world (due to outsourcing...) if all he did was live and work in the picturesque postcard town of Olinda. Not only had the Indians come to Australia and Melbourne, they had decided to walk through his sleepy little town, of course with a good intention. My imagination ran wild that night (because I couldn't get to sleep at all) thinking about how this part of the world might react to an Indian wedding in the nearby Rhododendron gardens and with the quaint country cottage booked for accommodating 8 wedding guests. Some 80 might have turned up at his cottage, each with 6 bags. Also, Indians never close the front door. They think that a closed front door is an unwelcoming sign. Yes Sir, the Indians have come and unfortunately walking through your town and guess what - they have a couple of Italians amongst them too. Ganesh help the cottage owner and his adherence to council regulations, by-laws and his relationship with the neighbours. Tschk, Tschk, Tschk.

We had covered 46.5 kms on Day-1 (Friday) and we were on track in terms of our plan.

5:00 am Saturday, 12-April-2008 (Check Point 4 - Olinda Reserve)

After a sleepless night, we were off again to the trail in the morning. We started walking from 5:20 am having left CP-4 (Olinda) on our way to CP-5 (Silvan). This section has some steep descents and that took a heavy toll on the knees of one of our walkers. His condition and suffering caused us grave concern and we thought that he might be our first casualty on the event. After having his knee checked out by the medical professionals at CP-5 and with the knowledge that there was no ligament or cartilage damage and that the crook knee was because of a crook back we decided to egg him on and so he did bravely. We made it to CP-6 (Graham Colling) almost one hour later than planned and we also spent a longer time on the break there. By the time we left CP-6 we were almost 1.5 hours behind our planned schedule. The day had started to heat up as we started to walk on the dreaded Warburton trail towards CP-7 (Woori Yallock) where we had planned to break for lunch. By now injuries, blisters and fatigue was rife in almost all of the walkers. The struggle had begun. Somehow the 12 walkers became separated on this section from CP-6 (Graham Colling) and CP-7 (Woori Yallock). We had intentionally (unfortunately) polarised ourselves into smaller groups of faster and slower walkers with those that were still fit, younger and energetic leaving behind the unfit, older and more tired walkers. So here we were at CP-7 (Woori Yallock), a tired group of walkers that somehow had managed to lose the teaming aspect and sight of the big picture. Quite a few had nasty blisters and sore knees. The feet were screaming in pain. We had walked 76 km in all and there were 2 more sections left. Fortunately, we all realized that it was a mistake to have broken up into smaller groups. We realized that it is absolutely important for us to stay together as one team of 12 walkers as walked towards CP-8 (Milwarra Primary) and beyond to the Finish at Wesburn park. So, we had a serious chat amongst ourselves about how time didn't matter any more and we recalled our primary goal that we had set ourselves almost 5 months ago when we began training.

Our goals in that order were:

1. Achieve our fund-raising commitment


2. Achieve a 100% completion and safe finish (all walkers from all three teams to complete the 100KM in the available 48 hours)


3. Aim to complete the 100KM trail in 30 hours or less

We had already achieved Goal # 1. We knew that a conflict existed between Goals # 2 and 3. It was also very obvious that Goal # 3 was unachievable because we had decided to take a 6-7 hour break on Friday night. So it was that we regrouped ourselves to achieving Goal # 2 and discarding the time goal completely.

We walked together from CP-7 (Woori Yallock) towards CP-8 (Milwarra) and we put our slower walkers in front of the pack rather than leave them behind. This achieved two objectives - one, it motivated the slower walkers quite a bit and reassured them that they were vital to achieving Goal # 2 and it helped push the pace a little because the fitter walkers pushed from behind rather than pull from front which hadn't worked before. It had also become dark and cold on this section and it helped stay together.

So it was that we arrived at CP-8 (Milwarra) as a group. This was probably only the third time on the trail that we were together as a team of 12. We were already pumped up with freely flowing adrenalin knowing we were just 9.5 KM from finish. We had decided to have a quick 10 minute break at CP-8 before moving on. We knew that this last section was really difficult - the most difficult of all sections and this is what would make or break us. It was wonderful to have our families here. The pain had been forgotten - not to say that is wasn't there. The emotion was so charged with positive energy and vibes that somehow we had gained an ability to not feel the pain anymore. Our support crew were absolutely convinced that we would make it to the finish safely - all 12 walkers!. Their encouragement and motivation was contagious and did the work. We literally started running from CP-8 - can you believe it? After 90,5 kms we were running! Brave, but stupid? Absolutely. Life would be boring otherwise.

This section has about 6 kms of steep climbs about 2 kilometres of knee grinding and bone wrenching descents. It is like being put into a torture chamber. Many of us were quietly reiterating to ourselves that we were doing this for charity to help the underprivileged people. That and the beckoning sight of family and friends at the Finish line spurred us along towards the finish. The rest is history. We had covered 100 kms in 40 hours. More importantly all 12 walkers and all 3 Satyam teams had finished - safely (with a few minor injuries that were expected in an event like this) and we had also fulfilled our fund-raising commitment. That will not stop us from seeking more funds. In fact I feel we will now be more active than before.

This blog would be incomplete without a special applause for three young walkers from the Sloths team (Sobee, Praval and Ankush) who joined us just a month ago and marvellously completed it despite very little training.

We will now spend more time with our families every weekend. We feel guilty at having taken so much time away from our families for training practically every weekend over the last 5 months.

Some of us might do this again and some might never do this again in our lives, but I am sure we will all be Support crew for someone else that might do this next year or some other time and some of us might even be volunteers for Oxfam!

So ends our 100KM story...

Please come back to this blog soon for a visual and audio experience of the Oxfam Trailwalker Melbourne 2008 event and the experience of Satyam Snails, Slugs and Sloths.

Sincere and heartfelt appreciations to our support crew (in alphabetical order):

1. Arun
2. Avinash
3. Bala (Support Leader)
4. Deepak
5. Dennis
6. Jamuna
7. KVR
8. Lucky
9. Martin
10. Mohit
11. Rinku
12. Sangeeta
13. Sekhar (Nagasekhar)
14. Srikanth
15. Sumana
16. Suresh
17. Venkat
18. Vijay

My sincere apologies if I have missed out any name. I may still be delirious and hallucinating from the ordeal.

The Satyam Snails, Slugs and Sloths salutes you and dedicates this walk to all of you.

We would also like to express our heartfelt appreciation and thank all our friends and colleagues who called us or sent SMS's on our mobile phones throughout Friday and Saturday enquiring about our well-being and wishing us success and safety.

Finally we wloould like to sincerely thank and express our gratitude to scores of Oxfam volunteers and staff who served us at Check Points, Road crossings and other places. They were marvellous. It is very moving to see how selfless they are in serving hundreds of walkers, in the cold and dark. They are an inspiration and a treasure to the community.

Please do record your feedback as a comment on this blog. It will be read by thousands of people that read this blog and might be useful to others who might do this next year...

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely

Venki Prathivadi

on behalf of Satyam Snails, Satyam Slugs and Satyam Sloths

The day of reckoning

Hello

We started this blog on 4th December 2007, a week after we started training for the Oxfam Trailwalker 100 KM walk in Melbourne to raise funds for charity. Little we did realize, then as to how quickly time would go by before we got to the actual event. Well, that day of reckoning is here. The event is on this Friday, 11th April 2008 and I am writing this behalf on behalf of the Satyam teams participating in the event to humbly seek your encouragement and best wishes.

We now have three Satyam teams participating in the event. They are the “Satyam Snails”, “Satyam Slugs” and “Satyam Sloth’s”. The “Sloths” were formed just a few weeks ago. As such 12 of us "Brave but stupid souls" are just about to undertake the most gruelling physical and mental team challenge we have ever encountered in our lives. You may ask – why would we do this? Are we crazy?

Not yet. Maybe after walking over 30+ hours in the bush to cover the 100KM, we might appear and behave in a crazy manner for a few hours. That would be because of the delirium and hallucinations the gruelling walk would cause, let alone the pain and agony. We know because we walked 70 kms during a practice session, one of those very hot weekends, on the actual trail and our minds behaved strangely.

Here’s how much money the three teams have raised so far in the fundraising campaign related to the walk, thanks to your support:

Satyam Snails - $6,793
Satyam Slugs - $4,620
Satyam Sloths - $1,293

What does this really mean? What is the big deal about $6,793? (That is the cost of say a big-screen LCD TV and a DVD player and a few movies is it?)

The money we have raised between the three teams (Totally $12,106) will establish a school for 483 children in a remote Indian village and pay for their complete education expenses for one year. Is that worthwhile? Would we walk 100 kms for that? You bet!

Do we want to raise more money to help send 12-year old girls to school instead of picking rags for a living so they can support their families? Absolutely. All it costs is $30 per child per year.

The Satyam Snails are 15th on the overall ladder of top fundraising companies. There are over 400 corporations taking part in the event through 700+ teams of 4 walkers each.

We are very grateful to your contribution and you may like to know that the fundraising campaign will still be open till end of May 2008. The organization that raises the highest amount for Oxfam through this event will get good publicity and recognition throughout Australia. Currently, the team that is leading has raised $18,900. Perhaps you will help put “Satyam” right on top.

We now approach Friday, a little nervous, but eager to start the long walk with that first step. We will start at Jells Park in Victoria at 8:30 am on Friday morning and we expect to reach the Finish point – Wesburn Park, exactly 100 km away sometime on Saturday evening – hopefully still standing on two feet with all our toe nails intact. We have trained hard every weekend under all types of conditions, hot and cold, day and night, for this tough event and we are all hopeful that we will finish. However your encouragement will motivate us significantly during those moments when our bodies might be unwilling. Do feel free to send us e-mails or call us on our mobiles to talk to us. Details are listed below.

Just as you have supported Oxfam to help the needy and underprivileged people of the world, there is a magnificent support crew consisting of several associates from Satyam and our family members that have supported us throughout our training and will continue to do so on Friday and Saturday. We are very grateful and indebted to them.

You may also be interested to read a great write-up on the event in last week’s Age newspaper - http://business.theage.com.au/long-journey-starts-with-a-single-step/20080405-23y2.html

You can donate to Oxfam through any of our teams here:

· www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/636 (Satyam Snails)
· www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/637 (Satyam Slugs)
· www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/705 (Satyam Sloths)

Do see the photo gallery at left to see images from our training sessions.

We will update this blog site after the event on 12th April 2008. Do come back to read about our experience.

Have a great day

Venki Prathivadi

Practice Session # 13

To be updated soon...Please come back.

Practice Session # 12

To be updated soon...Please come back.